Two New Encounters

My cousin mentioned to a Park Ranger that I'd walked across Spain (meaning she figured I could handle a week of backpacking in the Canyonlands). The ranger looked at me and said "you did the Camino"?

Yay! He and his wife had also. And low and behold his wife was also a ranger. He had me look her up while leaving the park.

That was my first encounter, other than at the exhibit of running into other pilgrims.

Hopefully the first of many.

Sacred Steps

I attended the Sacred Steps Art Exhibition at St. Thomas this weekend.

I was fortunte to have a few moments to meet George Greenia before his lecture. It was a simple and brief, but dead-on description of the history and compulsion and emotion of the camino. I was moved.

He had the pilgrims stand...there were so many of us. And I met Donna. I have someone, finally, Stateside, only a timezone away, in a city that I frequent to talk about it. We had many things in common.

I felt at home again. With kin.

If you get a chance to see the art exhibit, please try to see it. It is small, but emotionally signifigant.

Feliz Año Nuevo

I woke up yesterday thinking - Feliz Año Nuevo. I would have said I said it out loud and you would have thought I went looneytoons. No, it was definitely inside my head because I remember my eyes rolling up as I was trying to think what order the words needed to said. More to the point. At 12:00:01 AM, January 1, 2009, I could no longer say "last year" and "mi Camino' in the same sentence. That was a sad realization for my head and heart. It seems so yesterday and so long ago at the same time. It was surreal to me as the date approached to start.

It was surreal when I was walking day after day. And it is surreal to think that I did it at all. Except....

When January 1, 2009 I hear from Harald and Joop wishing me a happy new year. And my dear friends beckon me to their homelands for a visit.

Joop, bless his poetic, sweet heart wrote: "Since we have met there has not been a single day that I did not think of you....."

And this is why whistfully, I retreat from "last year", but enthusiastically embrace "soon" and look forward to 2012 when the "gang" all converges on Santiago once again to rejoice in our "saintly" friendships.

Pilgrim's Together

Pilgrim's Together (click to watch video)
by John Coleman

No longer strangers but pilgrims together
Called to be woven like threads on the loom
Drawn by the one God who thirsts for communion
Called by the piper called by the tune
Though we come from many nations
And our faith has many names
Across oceans over mountains
On these paths of peace we come
To be together in the walking
In the resting in the meal
And when the blessed breath of evening comes
As one the pilgrims kneel
No longer strangers. . .
We know our thirst for God is blessing
We know our hunger’s not a curse
We know our emptiness is sacred room
Like a precious spirit purse
We are lovers of communion
We are building with our clay
A house for God to dwell with us
Let us be the house we pray
No longer strangers. . .
Every thread that’s sewn is different
There are no two quite the same
All the colours make strange rainbows
God’s promises made plain
We submit to the great weaver
Let our pattern be the weaver’s refrain
Our God the God of difference
Calls each of us by name
No longer strangers. . .

364 Days Later

Tomorrow is the first anniversary begining my Camino. Joop and I, a year ago today were sitting in a tiny outdoor cafe, sipping red wine contemplating our sanity and fortitude of the days ahead of us.

After sharing much of my story for the first time this weekend with a new one in my life, I reflected again on the signifigance of this adventure.

Joop called yesterday. Emails from Harald and Anika today. We're all in each other's thoughts - still woven together from the journey.

My past, my present and my future.

That Precise Moment

This evening I was outside. A calm Spring day. Fading light. I noticed the color, the temperature, the birds, the sky. It is evening this time.

Last Fall it was the light. The Light.

I often started out in the mornings in the dark. Sometimes damp and crisp. More often than not the mornings I ventured out early were pitch dark. The dark before the dawn dark. The time of day when everything is at rest. Night is even sleeping at that point.

And then I could see-feel my feet. The air began to have light. The birds would begin to cheep. The landscape would start to expose texture and depth. The stars would fade and everything else woke up. I could hear proud roosters for miles. Voices would begin to carry. Lambs would begin to bleat. And I inhaled it all. I let it come to me. Day after day.

And today, although it was evening, I was transported once again.

New Meaning To Easter

My little band of Camino friends have been exchanging Easter greetings the last few days. I realized while responding to one that through St. James, we connected ourselves to the Easter Story. St James was at the Crucifixion. He was there in the Upper Room when Christ returned.

I have not a single doubt in my bones we were all summoned to the Camino and therefore summoned to a connection with Christ as his first followers were.

Easter has a new meaning to me this year. Will it for you?

Six Months Ago Today....

Six months ago today my feet landed on French soil ready to walk to "the ends of the Earth". All alone and with a "journey of a lifetime" ahead of me.

I met my first Camino friend Denise, then Joop, then Eva, then Aliche, then Harald, then Klaus, then Siggy, then Javier, then Dominique, then Marlene and after coming home, Tamara, Javier's daughter, etc. The list goes on and on.

We keep being hurled together over and over. Pictures shared, another familiar face found, another email exchanged, another connection made. It's an exercise in openness, love, International relations, Faith, geography, and chance.

I love you all so very, very much. My heart grows bigger every day.

Father Jose Maria

I received word tonight Father Jose Maria, caretaker of San Juan de Ortega, has passed away.

What a wonderful man: Revived the Camino, offered refuge to us Pilgrims, served us Garlic Soup, and took the time to speak to us. I was awed when meeting him and will not forget his kindness. Here's the link to the post I did during my Camino.

San Juan de Ortega

Jurgen is sitting with him on the park bench.

One of my other walking companions was kind enough to tell him, in Spanish, for me, how grateful I was for the work he had done in getting the Camino revived.

I think of him often and will include him in my prayers. My dear and beloved St. James, please walk with him and share with thim all the blessings we are sending his way.

Gracias Padre, Vaya Con Dios!

A Beautiful Gift

I received a BIG surprise in the mail last week. A beautiful 16" x 16" (40cm x 40cm) calendar of the Camino from Harald.

Holding the package in my hand alone brought tears very close to the surface. The fact that he thought to send me something .... all the way from Germany to Utah. Then I opened it.

And I cried. Then I sobbed. Then I cried a little more. HUGE, beautiful pictures of the Camino. A whole year of them. Just for me!

I was explaining the emotion to a friend of mine: I told her that I "reference" Websites and books and people often about the Camino. My Camino Friends and all the authors all took the same road, seeing the exact same things. And every person has captured that "exact same spot" in a different way. From snails on a blade of grass to the blue skies above the churches, to the long stretches of trail. Somehow it all gets captured. It just takes a few hundred of us to pull ALL the beauty together again.

And then there are some who can do it so easily with a 16x16, .5 inch box. Thank you!